Benjamin Flower at Newgate to Eliza Gould at Mr. Gurney’s, Keene’s Row, Walworth, Saturday, 14 September 1799.

                                             Newgate. Sep. 14. ‘99

                                                         Saturday— 1 o’clock

My Dearest Eliza

   I really cannot help sending you a line or two, just to say, that if your cold is not much better, and the weather more favourable, your only way of seeing me to morrow, and I add of stirring out of doors, must be, by stepping into a coach; stepping out of it at the Door of Newgate; and returning in the same manner.  This I think you may safely venture to do.  I shall therefore expect you to Breakfast.  I am sure I can read, what you will say will equal any sermon you can hear.   One of the finest pieces I ever read on one of the most exalted subjects—A state of future happiness, which I confess, (notwithstanding what I at present enjoy, in consequence of your frankness, and your kindness) unless I firmly believed, I should find my sensations of a very mixed nature.  It is the animating thought, that our union here, will be only introductory to and a foretaste of that more delightful union, which will, without anything to embitter or diminish it, last to Eternity.  It is indeed this thought only, which prevents many a pang from intruding into my soul, even at such a season as the present.

   I, after you was gone, last evening, had a little conversation with Captain Perry. What he said gave me much uneasiness, and determined me, when this morning I saw what sort of a day we were likely to have, and which even if to morrow should be fine, will leave the streets too damp, for you to walk with safety—I say it determined me to send you these lines.  He said he did not like some things you said respecting your cold, & the general account you gave of your health.  He is a medical man.  You really must do every thing in your power to get quite well, and to keep quite well.  I demand it—Your friends demand it—Society in general, and the poor in particular, demand that every care should be taken of a life so valuable.  What Perry said about Colds made me think of an expression used by the late Dr Marriott—when asking a Friend how he did and the reply being—“Very well I have only a cold”—The Doctor with quickness replied—“Only a cold, what would you have—the plague?” While thinking on such a reply, I could not help trembling, and indeed my pen trembles as I now write.

   I shall depend on receiving a line or two in the course of to day, and sincerely hoping I shall therein find a good account of you, I remain

                     With the most sincere & ardent affection

                                 Your

                                             B Flower

P.S.  My paper is this moment come.  I had ordered my people to put in a fine piece of Poetry, the Title Love and Madness; but I suppose the other piece which I had before sent was printed.  The former will appear in a future paper.

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Politics, Religion, and Romance: The Letters of Benjamin Flower and Eliza Gould, 1794-1808 (Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales, 2008),  pp. 104-05. 

Capt. Perry, of the Royal Anglesea Fusiliers, married a Miss Hales of Norfolk, sister of John Turner Hales, in January 1801 (Cambridge Intelligencer 24 January 1801). Thomas Marryot (1730-92) was originally from London and trained to be a Presbyterian minister.   After obtaining an M.D. from the University of Edinburgh, he settled in Antrim, Ireland, in 1766 and began practicing medicine.  He left Ireland in 1774 for Shrewsbury, later moving to Bristol in 1785.  His published works include Therapeutics, or A new practice of physic (1758); The philosophy of Masons (1785); and Sentimental fables for the ladies (1791;1805).